Tag: halls

Hey guys, for this blog I’m going to talk about visiting Edge Hill as a prospective student what you can expect and what is available to you.

Chances are if you are looking at university as an option you have probably selected five universities to put down on your application, or maybe you are looking to change university, if you have selected Edge Hill, you might now be thinking about visiting the place soon to get a proper feel for it. So I’m just going to give you a few different pointers on when you can visit and what will be going on.

Applicant Visit Days: These vary in times and nature between courses but they are generally available to people who receive an offer that doesn’t require an interview or audition. Visit day’s are a good way to get a feel for your course specifically as they are tailored for it, with relevant tutors and subject taster sessions.

Open Days: These are days where the whole campus is opened up to people to come see the inner workings of the university. People are given the chance to see the campus, the accommodation, as well as experience more course-related things like subject presentations.

Campus Tours: If like me you live further away, open days and applicant visit days may not be on at suitable times for you. So Edge Hill also offers the opportunity to visit for a campus tour. These are held every month with additional dates over February as well. Tours are another great way to look around the university, they offer the opportunity to be taken around the various facilities and areas by a guide, with a presentation on aspects like student finance and a Q&A to follow. Edge Hill also offers Ad Hoc campus tours which can be arranged for a time and date suitable to you if coming from abroad and can’t make any of the other dates. These also offer the chance to be shown the campus by a guide, with viewings of some accommodations although these won’t be as in-depth as the usual campus tours, they are still a viable option.

Whatever you choose, just know that seeing any university including Edge Hill first hand will help make any decisions in the future a lot easier! I will include useful information links below and thanks for reading!

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Hey everyone, since it’s the time of the year where prospective students are submitting applications for uni. I’m going to continue along the theme of some of my previous blogs talking about preparing for university, by talking about the first week, also known as Welcome Week.

If you choose to stay on campus walking into your new room for the first time is one of the craziest things, it’s exciting and scary in equal measure. The student realisation that your parents aren’t going to well, parent you all the time was for me a really surreal feeling. The next thing you will want to do is meet all your other flatmates, I already talked about this in a previous blog so I won’t go on but if there are people in the kitchen just talk to them, it makes life much less awkward in the coming days.

There is loads of stuff going on over Welcome week from fun day activities to events in the evening held in the SU. In my first year we had things like inflatables and mini gold during the day, and disco’s and dj’s like Kristian Nairn (Hodor from GOT) in the night. In the first week Edge Hill does go all out on its events so if you want to, go out and enjoy them because they are there for the students anyways! Don’t feel like you need to go out every night for the first week, I mean you can but, I’d rather not.

As well as the various events throughout the day. You will also begin your course, don’t worry though they ease you in nicely. I had a couple of lectures/classes where things were fairly casual, just talking about what we would be doing throughout the year, sorting timetables things like that. Nothing to warrant any studying or much work, yet. I do Film and TV Production and so we had a media challenge that we could take part in, just a basic ice-breaker to get us used to classrooms and our course mates etc.

Before you know it the first week will be over and you will probably be reasonably well settled in. It’s ok to still be adjusting as it’s a big change from home life, but if you are still struggling after a while then there are counselling services on campus that are available if you’re needing help. But overall the first week is chill just take it easy and hopefully enjoy it!

Jordan

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2018 was an exciting year at Edge Hill University and I don’t think it would be complete if we didn’t take a look back over the last 12 months and give a few mentions to a few of the things that made everyone’s lives a little more special. So many things happened that you could be here til next year listing them so let’s keep this brief and drive right into, three top tips from the year past.

Shoot for the stars

In the year past we saw elections in March and in November at our students union. Big shout out to all of those who put themselves forward. I actually interviewed a number of candidates and heard their voices loud and clear. If there is one thing that people like Jack Fields, Molly Smallwood and Craig-Francis Meichan have shown its that speaking out for what you believe in will often yield many similar minds behind your cause.

Don’t leave it up to chance

Absolutely no point whatsoever in wanting something, but not badly enough to work for it. 2018 held many truths like this for me. I have to admit I didn’t work for much, maybe my license but that’s about it. If you want something then you need to get out there and fight for it. In fact i’m sick of saying it, I feel like my last 5 blogs have all touched on this, but trust me its important. I don’t know who needs to hear this, but just go do whatever it takes to get what you want.

Forget everything and be yourself

Right this one really goes out to you, yeah the one person who is reading this blog. No idea who you are, or how you even got here, but listen up. You might think this sounds corny or you might think it’s just a dumb piece of writing on the internet. You’re wrong. I’ve spent my whole life trying to fit my square personality into other peoples triangle shaped lives but in 2018 I stopped. I’ve never been happier to be myself and not care one bit about what others have to say behind my back. So, take my advice or don’t. Either way, I don’t really mind.

That’s everything. Just one more thing before you go.

Happy new year.

If you want more free and great advice email think@edgehill.ac.uk or leave a comment below and I will get back to you. If you want to suggest something to write about or want to be interviewed leave a comment below also and I will get back to you personally.

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First things first, Merry Christmas!
Why I’m writing this post on Christmas day is as baffling to me as it is to you, but here we are!

So I want to talk to you guys about the decision you may have to make about whether to live in halls or to live off campus. This could be an easy decision for some, but if you’re like me, it can be tough and may take a while for you to come to a decision. 🤔

Coming to university as a 22 year old and having the third years still be younger than you is amusing as it is saddening. So the idea of halls for me was a huge NO 🙅🏽. However, everyone I spoke to really urged me to live in halls for the first year. Their reasons were:

It’s close to your buildings, classes and the library.

It’s way more social living on campus and you’ll meet so many more people than you would living off campus.

It’s nice to move away from home for a little bit and learn to be independent.

I’ve already lived away from home and living away from my family is really nothing new to me, so being independent is something I’ve been for a long time. But it is a great way to learn some independence!

I was so against living with people aged 18-20 but I can say with all my trust and confidence it is the best decision I could have made. Don’t get me wrong, I’m definitely the Mum (I prefer ‘older sis’) of the flat, but everyone was right, it’s far more social and you meet some great people. 🥂

It’s nice if you start to feel homesick, or a little trapped, that you can wander into the kitchen and have a cup of tea or watch a movie with someone who is in the exact same boat as you. It really helps.

It’s also only a 10 minute walk to my building and it’s a great feeling leaving a lecture or seminar and knowing you’ll be back in bed in no time. It’s a short walk to the library or The Hub if you need to get out of halls and need a little time to yourself. 🍃

The decision is, of course, up to you but as someone who struggled with deciding, I would urge you to try it. You have the ability to be put on a transfer list if you’re not happy with your halls or if you wish to change to off-campus, but I would say, try it.

I hope this has helped in some way in making your decision. It’s a hard one and I have to say if you are leaning towards living off campus, there are student houses that are lovely and really close to the University, but living on campus definitely has more pros! Thanks for reading ☺️

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The day is here, it’s the Saturday or Sunday before Welcome Week, and you’re getting ready to head off to start your time at University. You might be feeling as I was, anxious, excited and ecstatic all in one, or you might feel all nerves or all excitement everyone’s different, so following on from my last blog post I am just going to give a few pointer’s on how to make the most of your arrival at uni.

Talk to your new flatmates: Chances are if you choose to live in halls, you will be moving in together with a load of new people which is definitely a frightening thought for some, but it doesn’t need to be. When you first arrive at your new accommodation, everyone else will be feeling the same way so while it is extremely tempting to just hide in your room and hope people leave you alone it’s best to just familiarise yourself with your new surroundings and meet/get to know the people your going to be living with. It’s a hell of a lot easier to say hello to your flatmate if they come into the kitchen if you already are at least acquainted with each other.

Create an aesthetically pleasing room to live in: This is simple, bring stuff with you from home that you can put in your room to make it feel more like home. Now me personally, I’m not really bothered about getting 50 Polaroids of all your friends and sticking them on the wall but maybe you want to and that’s totally fine, whatever you like. I prefer posters of things I like such as TV shows, films, games etc. There’s a brilliant poster sale in the Hub on the first week that has loads to choose from, I grabbed a cool Breaking Bad and Rick and Morty poster to add to my collection and liven up my room.

So yeah just a couple of ways to make that moving in process just a bit easier which can’t be a bad thing eh? I’ve also included a link to my previous blog on packing for university, hope you enjoy!

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Hi everyone, for my second blog I’m just going to talk a little about moving out of home for the first time and going to University, and what you can do to prepare to make the transition more manageable, enjoyable and hopefully A lot less stressful!

1. Pack early: I know this might seem obvious but starting your packing even a week before leaving home is a really good idea, trust me. You don’t realise until it comes to packing how much stuff you need to bring with you, clothes, gadgets, trinkets and whatever else begin to pile up really quickly. In my personal experience even though I had done most of my packing by the time I was ready to leave, I still found myself running around like a headless chicken looking for my headphones and whatever else I realised I would definitely need.

2. Book travel well in advance: Doing this not only saves a lot of stress but also a lot of money. Obviously depending on where you live or your travel situation circumstances will be different but if you know you will be travelling by train or boat or plane, booking earlier can save you a lot of hassle that can be caused by booked up journeys or lack of luggage, space say if you were going on a busy flight and needed cabin baggage. In my experience if you book for example, A flight a month beforehand which in my case was coming over from Northern Ireland, an early booked flight would only usually cost £10/20 but leave it too close to the date and you could end up paying more like £50/60 which is a LOT more if you’re a budgeting student.

3. Don’t worry if your late: I know you definitely want to arrive on time for your moving in day and you most likely will, but on the off-chance you don’t (like me) don’t stress, Edge Hill is very accommodating and even though I was one of the last people to pick up my keys, someone still took the time to show me to my accommodation where I finally arrived to meet my flatmates for the first time, which didn’t make any difference that I was late as everyone was also still pretty nervous! Moral of the story, chill out it will be fine :).

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Hello again! ☺️ Today I’m going to give you a little insight and into my room here at Edge Hill and some tips for living comfortably at university. I’m in my first year so I’m on campus living in Chancellors South. The accommodation is absolutely stunning, all over campus, and I feel very lucky to live here.

I’ve always tried to make my space as comfortable and cosy as possible and my uni room was no different. A lot of the stuff you can see is from a shop called The Range – this is a great place to get some cheap decor for your room to make it feel a little more homely. Primark is another good place, I got my bedding and hot water bottle from there and they sell really nice reed diffusers to keep your room smelling nice! 💕

One thing I will suggest is to bring a fan, those rooms are wonderful in the winter because they’re so insulated but in the spring and summer months it can get hot and having a fan definitely helps. I use the door to the bathroom as a whiteboard which is really great to keep on top of your to-do list, just make sure you don’t buy or use permanent markers 😖! I’ll note here, Chancellors South provide a full length mirror – I nearly bought one until I saw a YouTube video explaining that they provide one!

Due to the wonderful Catalyst, we don’t have computers in our rooms but we still have the TVs ☺️! The desk is nice and spacious and the space behind the TV is all cork-board so get some pushpins to hang the important stuff up. I brought my printer but the ink can get expensive so it’s easier and cheaper to just use the Catalyst, if I’m honest. The draws are also really spacious, I’ve added a picture to show you my ‘work’ one:

The little pot in the bottom right hand corner is where I keep all my paracetamol, antihistamine, blisters and flu stuff – bring this, you are bound to get the fresher flu! I also brought a little sewing kit that you can see in the middle near the top, I have used this a handful of times now so it’s good to have around. ✂️

In Chancellors South we have a designated house keeper that comes in Mon-Fri to give the place a little dust, hoover and mop. She doesn’t do our rooms, just the kitchen and hallway, so I keep a little box of cleaning products in my room for when I need to give my place a dust or clean my bathroom. 🚿

The bathroom is set out like a wet room so I keep my towels on the back of the door using this over the door hanger I got from B&M. I also got a cheap standing wire storage holder to put all my shampoos and body soaps in! B&M have some really good products for storage. 😊

The accommodation is really stunning and it’s no surprise that it is award-winning. The wardrobe space is great and it includes a mini fridge to hide all your chocolate or expensive food. There’s storage under your bed to keep boxes, shopping bags or shoes. The storage in the kitchen is excellent too but that’s for another post 😃. I hope you have enjoyed this and I hope it has given you a better insight into the accommodation for Chancellors South. See you next time! 💕

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Working on Welcome Sunday 2018 as a member of the Campus Life team gave me the opportunity to talk to many of the incoming first years at the university. You would think that this blog would be about freshers moving into halls. Or even a 3rd year returning to a new style townhouse in Woodland Court. But I have a much more interesting person in mind for this month’s edition of random encounters. Michael the student helper.

On Welcome Sunday you will see about 40 or so students running around wearing yellow high visibility vests. Michael was one of these ‘student helpers’. He had given up the last Sunday of his summer to help students move into their on campus accommodation. I had the chance to ask him why.

‘I like helping people and I know it was hard for me to start out, so I want to put a smile on someone’s face.’ was the reply when asked why he wanted to work on this stress filled day. He also had no complaints about helping move boxes up and down stairs. ‘Someone did it for me, and i’m doing for them. Circle of life!’

As I thought about the day itself I realised that the student helpers around me were not tired, stressed or burnt out. They were smiling. These people had just spent a full day helping people move into their new homes and it gave most of them a sense of good karma. People like to help other people, and I honestly can say that the people that study, work and volunteer at Edge Hill University are some of the most helpful that I have ever met. The people make the place.

If you want to read more about Welcome Sunday check out my other blog here:

That’s all I have for you on this edition of random encounters but if you want to find out more about what to expect on campus you can check out Campus Life at EHU here. And please leave any questions you have for moving in below. You will get a personal response, fast.

And if you want more free and great information email think@edgehill.ac.uk or leave a comment below and I will get back to you. If you want to suggest something to write about or want to be interviewed leave a comment below also and I will get back to you personally!

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Moving to university can be a really scary and daunting prospect, but it can also be really exciting and later become a really fond memory. I can’t believe it’s been two years since I was moving onto campus, I was so nervous and worried and I ended up having one of the best weeks ever so I thought I could share with you some top tips for welcome Sunday which is now only two weeks away!!

1. Try to be yourself and not too reserved.

I am defitnely extremely shy around new people and this was something I found quite hard as it takes me a bit of time to come out of my shell. But if you just be yourself you will ease into uni life so easily and making friends will be a piece of cake!

2. Don’t hide in your room

Everyone is going to be nervous as you are all in the same boat, one thing I did was keep my bedroom door open all day so that when people passed my room they usually peeked into my room and we ended up chatting so it’s a great way to be social and make friends with your new flat mates!

3. Attend freshers events with your flat mates.

doing this will help break the ice and it will give you all something to bond over as you will all begin to make memories with each other! You are only fresher once so make the most of it!

4. Help someone who seems upset/homesick

The move to uni can be an upsetting time for some people as a lot us have never really been away from home before so if you see someone in your flat or anywhere who seems a little lost or upset it’s a great idea to go and talk to hem and help them feel more settled!

I hope these tips helped and if you are energies about welcome Sunday try not to worry too much as I’m sure you will all have the best time!

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Hi guys! During my first year of university, I lived in Founders Court. I miss living in halls for many reasons. Here are a few reasons why…

You have the chance to meet new people

Living with strangers can be a scary prospect… but I assure you, you will all get chatting in no time on welcome Sunday! Meeting new people will allow you to make new contacts and form close friendships.

Personalise your new room

A new home means a new place to decorate! During welcome week, there will be a couple of ‘crafternoon’ sessions where you can create your own decorations to make your room that bit more homey. This is where you can personalise a mug, craft a wall hanging or make a sign for your door.

The perfect location

Living on campus made it so easy to roll out of bed in the morning to make it to your 9am lecture. Not only is it handy to attend your lectures and seminars, everything happens on campus including university events, society meet-ups, social nights, barbeques, quizzes, karaoke and sporting events. Although living in a house has its own perks, I definitely miss being in the central buzz of Edge Hill (not that I’m far away… just a 15 minute walk!).

The library

Being on campus also made it so easy to visit the library, whether it is to take out some books, use their computers or do some work. This year the new library is complete in the Catalyst building… which I am very excited to see! You can read more about the new facilities here. Some people work best at home, whereas the library is the best place for others. Personally, it definitely helps me to concentrate on my assignments without any distractions!

I hope you are feeling buzzed for your first week at Edge Hill University. Have you started to read ‘Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine’ in your welcome pack?